Jo Johnson MP, Minister of State for Universities and Science, Research and Innovation (England)
Kirsty Williams AM, Cabinet Secretary for Education (Wales)
Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP, Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science (Scotland)
Economy Minister (seat currently vacant, previously Simon Hamilton), Northern Ireland Executive (NI)
Vice-Chancellors of all UKHE institutions
Heads of Humanities Faculties and Departments of all UKHE institutions
The Leverhulme Trust
The Arts and Humanities Research Council
The Economic and Social Research Council
The British Academy
The European Research Council
The Wellcome Trust
The Russell Group
Million Plus
Universities UK

We write as members (existing staff, students, and graduates) of UK humanities departments to object to the proliferation of precarious short-term teaching contracts across UKHE institutions. As the UCU has reported, nearly half of UK universities now use zero-hours contracts to deliver teaching, and more than two-thirds of research staff are on fixed term contracts.

We recognise the need for short-term contracts in limited contexts; we also recognise that such contracts can sometimes provide early career academics with useful experience on the road to more permanent positions; however, this can only be the case if such contracts are not precarious, and if the temporary staff members are treated ethically.

A ‘precarious’ short-term contract may:

– last less than 12 months and/or be less than 1.0 FTE
– require an appointee to undertake a full teaching load with no paid time allocated to research
– require an appointee to take the summer months as ‘unpaid leave’
– require an appointee to prepare for the post in his/her own time prior to appointment
– require an appointee to take up the position on a few days’ notice.

Unethical treatment of appointees while they are in post regularly compounds the disadvantages of these terms.

By enforcing such conditions, precarious short-term contracts preclude the maintenance of a work/life balance and financial security, impeding opportunities for productive research. In doing so, they create a teaching underclass, perpetuating a system that exploits vulnerable early career academics, especially those already under-represented in academic posts, including women, ethnic and racial minorities, and candidates with disabilities or caring responsibilities. This turns promising teachers and researchers away from careers in UKHE. As one postgraduate student put it so aptly:

‘I am just about to embark on graduate study and the situation scares me… How are we supposed to make the most of the experience? How are we supposed to be the best teachers and researchers we can be?’

– Inclusion of temporary staff in any departmental peer-review or development processes.
– Structured mentorship for research development of temporary staff.
– Departmental and/or institutional assistance in preparing funding applications.
– Preparation and marking time for fractional teaching contracts.
– A minimum of a month’s notice before the commencement of duties.
– A Living Wage.

We call upon academic departments in the humanities to pledge their commitment to these guidelines, and to make them explicit in job advertisements for fixed or part-time posts.

We also call on research funding bodies to mandate as a condition of funding awards that the person hired to cover staff on funded leave should be appointed on the same structural terms. For instance, if the staff member is on leave for 12 months, their cover should also be employed for 12 months.

UKHE institutions, by hiring on precarious short-term contracts—and UKHE research funding bodies, through complicity in such arrangements— are placing short term savings before the future of UKHE. These practices must end.

Early career academics are an amazing source of innovation and creativity, and the future of higher education. They deserve to be respected and treated as such.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Frankopan, Senior Research Fellow, Worcester College, University of Oxford

Dame Averil Cameron, Emeritus Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine History, University of Oxford